Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-12
PRUNING VINES.
THE TIME AND MANNER 1T
SHOULD BE DONE.
Information for Inexperienced Vine
yardists-Metht DIS Required for
Different Varieties and Ages.

As the time for pruning the vine is now
upon US, it may not be amiss to give few
general instructions for the benefit of those
growers in San Mateo county who have
young vineyards requiring now to be
pruned, but who have yet had no practical
experience in the matter. As it is imprac-
ticable to illustrate in this article the pro-
per practices by means of cuts and dia-
grams as it would be desirable to do, l
shall endeavor to make myself as clear as
the subject will permit without them.
Surprising that vineyard was planted last
spring with cuttings or rooted vines, the
primer will go among his vines provided
with a good pair of pruning shears such
as can be had from almost any seedman or
hardware dealer, and if he has never
pruned vine before, and has no instructor
at hand, he viii naturally ask himself how
to begin. Let il be understood that one
kind of pruning will not do for all varieties
of grape vines. Some varieties require to
have long canes left on them for bearing
the grapes the coming season-that is,
canes having each six, eight, or more buds
or eyes, while other varieties will bear
abundantly pruned to short spurs of two
or three eyes. Whatever style of pruning,
however, is adopted,
THE METHOD TO BE EMPLOYED
At the first pruning, and that is our case in
hand, will be the same. AS the primer
looks around him, he will see his vines
having each one, two, or more canes, in
most cases two, varying in length from
three to four inches to three feet. Where
the vine is sufficiently vigorous to have
produced a cane three or more feet long, it
may be pruned to form head at once, but
in other cases it is best not to prune for
head till the next pruning. In making the
first cut at this first pruning, remember
that the cane growing from the lower bud
will ordinarily make better shaped stock
than the one above. Therefore unless the
upper cane is so much more vigorous than
the lower that it would be sacrifice to re-
move it, don't hesitate to cut the whole
vine off smooth down to the point where
the lower cane starts, even if 1t be below the
surface of the ground, leaving only this
one cane, for in this way you are more
likely to,get a good, straight stock on which
To form the head. If, however, you decide
to leave one of the upper canes, prune off
all but the one cane left, flush with the
stock Now, you will have before you
vine deprived of everything above ground
except one cane of last summers growth
Unless you intend TO prune for head now,
all you have to do is simply to cut this
cane down so as to leave a spur with two
eyes, not counting the one at the crotch
formed by this cane with the old stock.
ONE PRECAUTIoN
Is to be observed here. In removing use
less canes, you have been told to cut them
flush with the stock, and this is to enable
the wound to heal sooner, but in pruning a
cane, always cut 1t at point about an inch
above the last bud left, otherwise the cane,
being pithy, is liable to dry down and in
| jure the bud; if necessary, the stub left can
| be removed at the next pruning In addi-
! ton to this precaution, some advise that
the cut be made .sloping on the side of the
cane opposite the bud so that if the vine
bleeds, as it will if pruned late in the sea-
son, the sap will not run down and iniure
| the bud, but will follow the slope and run
down on the opposite side of the cane. If
| the cane left on the vine is three or more
| feet in length, and therefore sufficiently
| vigorous to be pruned to form head, in
stead of cutting it down to two buds, cut it
SO that the second bud from the top will be
as high as you want the head to be, for the
crotch will be at the point where this bud
| starts next summer-say ten or twelve
| inches above ground for most wine grapes.
| If | have succeeded III making myself
clear, the young vineyardist will need no
further directions for his first pruning, and
| the same instructions will apply at the sec
ond pruning to all vines except those pre-
viously pruned to form a head. We will
now suppose that the cane was, at the last
pruning pruned to form a head, and that
! all the suckers starting at or below the sur
face of the ground were entirely removed
at the time of hoeiEg the previous summer,
and that all the young shoots which started
except the two upper ones, were also re-
moved or were
KEPT CAREFULLY PUNCHED BACK
TO three or four inches in length This
pinching, if the vineyardists will do 1t in
stead of entirely removing the shoots will
cause better development of the stock.
! We Will then find that our vine has two
! good canes at the top, forming crotch, or,
| as we call it, head. There will also be
found other canes which must be entirely
removed by cutting them off flush as be-
fore, leaving the two which form the best
shaped fork at the proper hight above
| ground. The style of pruning TO be given
to the vine from this time depends upon
the form which it is desired to give it. The
limits of this article will not permit us to
go into the details of all the different forms
but the reader is referred to the publica-
tions of the State Viticultural Commission
which can be had on application at their
office in San Francisco. The simplest style
| in short pruning, and which is adapted to
most of the vigorous varieties of vines,
such as Mission Zinfandel, Charbono, Ma
taro, Burger, Chasselas and many others
is the short spur or goblet system. This
system consists simply in pruning the two
upper canes back to two buds each, which
gives us Two arms, with two or three buds
on each. At the next pruning each of these
| arms will have two canes which must be
preserved and pruned back to two eyes as
before, which will give US four arms, and
the process will be repeated from year tc
year till the vine has eight, ten or twelve
arms, each provided with two spurs, re-
Numbering that as rule
THE VINE BEARS ITS FRUIT
On the shoots which grow from last year;
canes. This system, however, is no
adapted to many varieties of vines, such q.
the Riesling, Burgundies, Cabernets. Chau
che's, TrouSseau, Syrrah, ETC., which vii
produce but little fruit unless much more
bearing wood is left on them. 1t may
however, be modified so as TO suit these va
rieties without radically changing the form
by simply leaving two or more long canes
two, three or four feet long, instead o
pruning all to short spurs and tying then
to a long stake or to each other in the torn
of q bow over the vine. Another very goot
system of long pruning is modification o
what is known as Guyots system, which
consists in leaving one long cane for frui
and one short spur, to produce. canes TO
the next season, and after the cultivation il
done, tying the end of the long cane dowr
to a short stake, so that it will lie in nearl,
horizontal position, better, however, tina
the free end of the cane should be a littl,
lower than the point of junction with th
stock In this method it is necessary t
have a stake st the vine at least four fee
out of the ground. Surprising that we hav
vine carrying two arms, with canes OF
both ready to bs pruned to this system.
. the vine is not more than three or fou
years old, unless very vigorous, select
! cane on one arm, which can be most easii,
TRAINED IN 4 HORIZONTAL POSITION,
And which has the shortest joints, ant
mime it TO six or eight buds, and rensov
all the other canes on this arm except en-
1 r,aa- tho etorl- and r.rffne This IN two eves